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State Department Reassigns Refugee Admissions Chief

Published 01.09.18 4:32PM ET

Blair Gable/Reuters

The State Department has reassigned its chief of refugee admissions to a new post, a spokeswoman said, fueling speculation that the Trump administration may be moving to further curb refugee resettlement in the United States. Lawrence Bartlett was reassigned to the office that handles Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. “The FOIA office was always the punch line of a joke around here, as in: ‘They’ll send me to the FOIA office,'” a U.S. official told Reuters, describing the move as a form of “exile.” Bartlett told Reuters that his reassignment is not permanent. The Trump administration has significantly reduced the number of refugees admitted into the U.S., with just 5,300 allowed into the country since October, a 14-year low.